Drive digital sales of Forza Motorsport 6 on Xbox One by getting fans more engaged.

In the decade since the release of the very first Forza Motorsport game, this critically acclaimed car racing series has attracted a passionate legion of fans thanks to its high production standards and commitment to representing the race tracks, driving conditions and the experience of racing as realistically as possible.

Our goal was also to tap into the spirit of the Forza fan base – they love to go fast and they love to win – to reward them for all of the time and effort they have put into building up their skills, and provide them with a chance to prove just how good they are at racing.

The Idea: Offer fans early access to the game and then invite them to take part in the ultimate car racing challenge.

We know the thing that Forza fans love most is actually playing the game, but this is followed closely by their love of winning the game, so we created the Time to Shine challenge.

This campaign provided fans with early access to Forza Motorsport 6, as well as the exclusive chance to prove their Xbox skills and participate in a once-in-a-lifetime battle of speed against two of the best in the business.

First, we unleashed two experts on Forza Motorsport 6: Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, who is highly revered amongst Forza fans, and Lotus F1 Team Driver Romain Grosjean, who is one of the fastest drivers on the track in real life.

Both Spencer and Grosjean used the 2015 Lotus F1 Team’s E23 Hybrid on the Circuit de Spa- Francorchamps track in Belgium, and were challenged to come up with their fastest possible lap time.

The result was impressive: 2 minutes 00.343 seconds for Spencer and 1 minute 57.703 seconds for Grosjean. Once they had both laid down their very best lap times, we opened up the game to the fans.

Exclusive early access gave fans a chance to purchase the digital version of the game before the general public.

We then challenged these fans to demonstrate their abilities and try to clock a time that was faster than Spencer and Grosjean, using the same vehicle and track.

Grosjean also celebrated the challenge by racing in Xbox greens during the Singapore Formula One race, which coincided with the launch weekend of Forza Motorsport 6.

The Results

The launch of Forza Motorsport 6 was far and away the most effective in the history of the Forza series.

The Time to Shine campaign was, without a doubt, a roaring, screeching, thundering success.

Forza fans embraced the new game with open arms and couldn’t wait to (literally) get their hands on it, and we experienced an increase of 40% year-on-year sales for Forza Motorsport 6 digital.

The fans raced long and hard, and tried their very best to prove their supremacy on the track, but in the end only 5% of players managed to actually beat the impressive record set by Grosjean. Needless to say, each of these of these took full advantage of the bragging rights afforded to them by their win.

A staggering 20 million viewers watched Grosjean’s Xbox-inspired Lotus on the track at the Singapore Formula One and this, together with the challenge itself, inspired record-breaking fan engagement with over one million minutes logged for the challenge.

With a total of 100 media clippings, the campaign delivered in excess of $2M in media value when the on track sponsorship was factored.